Perfect? Hardly
by sparrowlullabies
Summary: 'Lily Pot... I mean Lily Evans! You are in so much trouble' Alice screamed, her face became thoughtful as she noticed Lily's face. She looked absolutely murderous, 'You see how easily that rolls off the tongue, Lils. Lily Potter. It just sounds right, dunnit'
1. Making an effort

Hi! This was originally posted over on another site a few years back, and after a long, rocky couple of years, I felt like it was time to start posting again. The main reason for the move is that this story will get VERY dark. There will still be the humour and light chapters towards the end, but... We all know the end of this story.

Anyhooo! Read, review and ENJOY! (BTW I am in need of a beta so if anyone is interested, lemme know, k?)

* * *

The sun was shining brightly through the clouds and straight through a small gap in the curtains of a tall white house with force. A young woman in her mid teens rolled over and smiled as she stretched her arms out, looking at the calendar beside her bed. _September 1st! _Lily thought, jumping out of bed in a hurry. Some of you may ask why a young woman would be excited about the first day of school. The answer? Honestly, I doubt anyone knows. This is Lily Evans! Student Extraordinaire, sixth year Prefect and... Witch? Yes one of the weird and wonderful attributes of Miss Lily Marie Evans was that she was a witch and a very good one too.

Lily quickly skipped over to the mirror and combed her fiery locks to perfection, studying her reflection carefully. Honestly, she didn't find herself that appealing. Sure, her freakishly green eyes were insanely cool. But red hair? _Thanks for that dad, _she thought, scrunching her hair and messing the side nervously. The redhead dropped her hand and slapped it. _Since when do I mess up my hair when I'm nervous? _She bit her lip as she thought of a young man who had introduced her to this annoying yet incredibly sexy habit... _Did I just call Potter sexy? Ew! _She giggled slightly and made her way downstairs for breakfast.

'Good morning Lily,' her mother said, kissing her gently on the forehead. Lily smiled and buttered the piece of toast in front of her. 'I can't believe it's finally your last year at Hogwarts, munchkin!'

Lily nodded and looked up at the tall blonde woman in front of her, 'And did I tell you, I'm Head Girl?'

Her mother dropped her fork and hugged Lily tight, her green eyes brimming with tears, 'I'm so proud of you! Andrew! Andrew, come here! Quickly!' Lily rolled her eyes and quickly reached into the cupboard, pulling out a large glass jar with a yellow label. Vegemite! No matter what her friends said, she couldn't get enough of the stuff. The sticky black paste looked awfully unappealing but to Lily, it was better than any breakfast spread in the world. She had first tried it when she was ten, when they went to visit cousins in Australia and had it flown in ever since.

Her father, a tall redheaded man, came tearing into the room and stood at the door, he turned his nose up. 'Lily-dearest, do you have to eat that disgusting colonial jam?' Lily laughed as her dad trotted over and dipped his finger in the jar and licked it off. Her mother looked disgusted as Lily did the same before spreading some on her toast.

'At least I don't have to deal with your vegemite addiction whilst you're at school. Oh! Andrew! Lily, tell him the news!'

Lily swallowed the toast she had in her mouth before saying in a solemn voice, 'Daddy, promise me you won't get mad...'

Her father looked over to her mother, who bit her lip, playing along with Lily's ruse. Andrew nodded, 'I'll try.'

'Now I know I said I'd be your little girl forever, and frankly, with Petunia getting married and so many attractive young wizards throwing themselves at my feet, I'm finding it a little hard to fit in... So I've decided to become an escort lady!' Her father choked on his coffee, spraying it across the white marble bench top. Lily's mother burst into fits of laughter and had to hold onto her chair as Andrew's face slowly faded from an angry red to a chalky white.

'Marie, this isn't funny! Jeez, Petal, you really scared me for a second. Now, what news?'

Lily smiled. 'I made Head Girl!'

'Lily, that's wonderful news!' Her father hugged her and spun her around on the spot, 'My baby girl! Head Girl of the best witchcraft school in Europe!'

'Oh wow, I guess this makes you freakiest of the lot, huh?' Lily turned to see her sister Petunia sit at the table.

'Actually, it just means I'm better at turning people into frogs...' Lily said casually, watching her sister's face blanch in fear. 'Don't worry, Pet. I won't give you warts... Just think you'll fit right in with that toad Vernon.' She grinned as her sister frowned and glared at her.

'Lily, Petunia, stop it. You aren't going to see each other for months! Please at least try to be nice.'

After breakfast, Lily ran to her room and changed into white black mini dress, white tights and some black heels. She rushed around the room to do a last minute check, making sure that she didn't forget anything, and pulled her trunk out onto the landing, _whoever proposed the no magic outside school laws, clearly never had to lug a trunk downstairs._ Her father came up and helped her drag the heavy luggage down to the car.

An hour later they reached Kings Cross Station, Lily and her father got out and found a trolley whilst her mother parked the car. She still had 45 minutes to be on the train so she wasn't worried when her mother and Petunia had been gone for over five minutes.

She turned to speak to her father but quickly turned back to the road as she saw a familiar mess of black hair.

'Lily?'

_If there is a God, he hates me,_ she thought, turning around to face the voice that she had spent the last six years loathing. James Potter was standing next to her father in a pair of tight muggle jeans and a plaid shirt. He held out his hand to her father. 'Mr Evans, it's a pleasure to meet you sir.'

Her father, who'd been looking on in interest, smiled widely, 'It's a pleasure to meet you too, eh...'

'James. James Potter.' At his introduction, Mr Evans began to laugh heartily, obviously remembering some of the rants that Lily had about this young man.

Lily frowned, 'What do you want Potter?'

'Lily, please be polite. He's making an effort to be civil.'

'Sorry, how may I help you, James?' She smiled, and frankly, it wasn't as hard as she thought it'd be.

Lily had to hold back a laugh as James perked up at the sound of his first name. He cleared his throat and looked bashful at the pavement, 'I just... I thought that I might... congratulate you on becoming Head Girl and... I'm looking forward to working with you this year.' He scurried off, red in the face, leaving Lily staring after him, completely confused.

James Potter? Head Boy? Oh gosh, this was going to be a long year.


	2. Gossip

So, I'll probably upload a couple of chapters a day until I've caught up to where I'm at. Here's chapter 2 ;)

* * *

After letting herself onto the platform, Lily sought after the messy haired Head Boy who had accosted her at the front of the station. She smiled to herself and thought, _Imagine the look on Marlene's face when she finds out who I'm looking for._

After minutes, she still hadn't found him and was distracted by a high pitched squeal from behind her.

'Little Red!' Lily spun around, a brilliant smile plastered across her face as she was thrown to the ground by a mess of blonde curls. She looked up into the blue eyes of her best friend, Marlene Mckinnon, who had pinned her to the floor, grinning like a lunatic. 'Lily, my sweet, I missed you!'

Lily pushed her off as Marlene started raining kisses all over her slowly darkening cheeks. Lily looked around, an older boy with grey eyes and a smirk winked at them. 'Oh look Marlene; it's your darling Sirius...' Marlene growled and hooked her arm onto Lily's.

'Let's go Red; I don't even want to see him right now.'

'Lena, what happened?' Marlene shook her head and dragged Lily into an empty compartment and put a secrecy charm on the door.

'I kind of...' Marlene trailed of, her hands still swirling. Eventually she groaned and then made a series of vulgar hand gestures.

Lily gasped and began to laugh, 'You little whore!'

'Shut it Evans! I really, really like him and... Well, I broke it off with him...'

'You did what?' Lily took Marlene into her arms and hugged her. 'Why?'

'Because I know what he's like at school! I don't want him to make a fool out of me!' Marlene sighed and buried her head in Lily's shoulder. 'Honey, you're supposed to be in the heads compartment... Alice will be here soon.'

Lily gave Marlene a soft peck on the side of her mouth and grinned, 'I'm sorry I don't kiss as well as Sirius. But honestly, can you blame me?' Marlene laughed and threw a pillow at her as she slammed the door shut.

Lily was quite surprised when she reached the Heads Compartment, James Potter, Procrastinator of the Year, was already sitting at the table, quill in hand.

'I thought you might be late,' he said quietly, not looking up from the parchment under his nose.

'Why? When is Lily Evans ever late?' she asked sitting across from him.

He merely shrugged, 'I hear Marlene had some interesting news.'

After a few minutes of silence, Lily got tired of the sound of his scratching quill grating through the tense air. She quickly plucked the quill from his hand.

'Hey!'

'James, what are you doing?'

He looked up, his hazel eyes grazing across Lily's face, 'I was just writing a letter... My parents are in Australia, visiting friends...'

'Oh, sorry,' she quickly gave his quill back and his face split into a broad grin.

'It's ok, love. Here, try this. They sent it over for my last week but Sirius won't touch the stuff... I fell in love with it.' He pulled out a small glass jar from his bag and opened it up. Lily felt her cheeks heat up a little at James' term of endearment. She scolded herself.

'Vegemite, James?'

He looked confused, 'How do you...?'

'I have cousins in Australia; they send me over jars of it. You're not the only one with weird taste. Come on; let's get started on the notes for the Prefect meeting.'

James nodded and put the jar back in his bag, pulling out another roll of parchment. He also took two of a shelf beside him. He handed her one of the rolls and opened his carefully.

_Mr Potter,_

_Congratulations on making Head Boy this year. I know you will do well. Attached is a list of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh year Prefects. You, along with Miss Evans, must roster each Prefect for rounds at least one night a week and for an hour each weekend. I am also leaving you two in charge of Hogsmeade Visits and anything else you think may think the students will enjoy. If Miss Evans has finally succumbed to your charms and is reading this I beg that she stops reading here._

James laughed and showed Lily the last line of his letter, she rolled her eyes with a smirk and shook her head, 'That man has finally lost it.'

_Now Mr Potter, I know you have a weak spot for pranking people, I am not asking you to give it up, just that you don't get caught. I'll have you know, I quite enjoy seeing the faces of students when they realise that their hair has turned pink and is standing on end._

_Once again, Congratulations on making Head Boy and I hope all is well for the coming year._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore._

James shook his head and turned to Lily, who was watching him carefully.

'James, is something wrong?'

'Why do you keep calling me James?'

'That's your name, is it not, Mr Potter?'

He nodded vigorously, 'I'm just confused.'

'Wouldn't be the first time,' she answered, grinning cheekily. She didn't know why, but she felt unusually comfortable with James. Last year, he would have asked her out by now. She liked this new James.

'Ha ha, funny... Maybe I should just go back to calling you Evans and yelling stuff like... "Hey Evans, do you have a mirror in your pants?" down corridors.'

'A mirror in my pants?'

'Yeah, coz I can see myself in them.'

To James' utmost surprise, Lily burst out laughing, 'Oh, James, that was terrible! So terrible, in fact, that I may have given you a pity date out of it...'

'Really?'

'No,' she said, finally controlling her giggles. Looking down at the parchment in front of her, Lily raised an eyebrow, 'Well James, how would you feel about organising a  
ball? Maybe for Halloween?'

James grinned, 'I'll agree on one condition...'

'If you ask me to go to the ball with you, I will tell Marlene that you snooped through my underwear draw and stole my lingerie...'

'You own lingerie?' Lily blushed, annoyed that she'd let that little piece of information out.

'That is not the point of this conversation, James... Marlene would go on a Potter pranking spree and you would be humiliated beyond belief...' James suddenly jumped up and sat on the chair next to her, looking like a fifteen year old girl in the mood to gossip.

And yes, he was going to gossip. 'Oh my gosh! Did you hear about Marlene and Sirius?'

Lily squealed in excitement, 'Of course! How did it happen?'

'Well, you know Sirius lives with me?' Lily nodded, completely enraptured by the story of her best friend falling in love. 'Marlene came over to play Quidditch on the pitch at my place and I left to babysit one of my cousins and apparently...'

'Are you two finished gossiping?' Lily and James turned to find Remus Lupin standing at the door, looking politely confused at the fact that James and Lily were speaking. 'The Prefects are all here. James? You know Sirius is going to kill you, right?'


End file.
